Kevin Bieksa played his best game of the playoffs on Sunday night in
Chicago, an overall inspiring effort that his team will need more of as
the series heads back to Vancouver tonight. While Sami Salo hasn’t
exactly been ruled out for tonight’s game, you have to think he’s likely
out as he tries to recover from a direct shot to his tender area.

While
Alain Vigneault was quick to share his unabashed opinion early in the
series, he’s turned to a more tight-lipped approach as the team
approaches Game 6 tonight.

“He played under control, played real hard, gave us a good game,”
Vigneault said.

“Under control” is the key word here, especially for a player like
Bieksa who has succombed to his emotions one too many times during his
stint with the Canucks. He’s been labeled as inconsistent and a bit
hotheaded at times, but if Salo is indeed going to miss time the Canucks
will need more of the Bieksa they witnessed in Game 5.

You have to think that Vigneault is wanting to keep Bieksa hungry,
not ready to prop him up with too much praise just yet. If he continues
to play like he did on Sunday, there’s no doubt that Vigneault will be
more willing to sing the praises of who he hopes to be his best
defenseman.

The New Jersey Devils have been incredibly difficult to beat at home. Lately, the St. Louis Blues have been on a roll just about anywhere.

On Friday night, the Blues were the hotter team, handing the Devils their first home loss in regulation in 2016-17. And it wasn’t particularly close, with St. Louis winning 4-1.

It’s a convenient time to note that the Blues rank among the hottest teams in the NHL. Most recently, they’re 5-1-1 in their last seven games, but they’ve been especially impressive since they flirted with .500 at 7-6-3. Beginning with a 4-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 15, the Blues are on a 8-2-1 tear.

That’s impressive stuff.

This 4-1 win was quite the showcase for Robby Fabbri and Vladimir Tarasenko, in particular. Tarasenko collected three assists while Fabbri scored two goals on Friday night. His second goal was particularly slick:

The Blues are right in saying that this was a pretty fitting opportunity to drop a “Holy Jumpin.”

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk has been the most difficult goalies to score against this season. Leave it to a high-level player like Leon Draisaitl to make it look this, well, “easy.”

Draisaitl scored his 13th goal of 2016-17 by capping this pretty give-and-go play with Benoit Pouliot. You can see the frustration from Dubnyk at the end of the tally, as if he was saying “How was I supposed to stop that?” (though probably with more colorful language).

Draisaitl came into Friday with five goals and three assists in his last five games, so he’s been almost unstoppable lately.